1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to flaked and powdered conditioning agents for bread doughs and the like. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a flakable conditioning agent comprising respective amounts of stearoyl lactylic acid and sodium or calcium salts of stearoyl lactylic acid. The invention is also concerned with a free-flowing, powdered, dough strengthening agent comprising respective amounts of stearoyl lactylic acid, sodium or calcium salts of stearoyl lactylic acid, and ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides, flaked, powdered and then mixed with defatted soy flour.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wheat flour baked goods are staple foods in many countries of the world because of their relatively high nutritive value, ready availability of wheat flour at an economical price, and the attractive organoleptic properties of the resultant food products. However, in order to increase the acceptability of wheat flour based products such as breads, it has been recognized that specific additives can advantageously be incorporated into the bread dough prior to baking thereof. In general, these additives possess emulsification, conditioning, and dough strengthening properties which serve to enhance mixing characteristics, increase loaf volume and improve the texture of the finished bread, and moreover tend to produce a final product of improved taste and appearance characteristics.
Stearoyl lactylic acid (SLA), also know as fatty acid lactylates, lactylic stearate and lactylic esters of fatty acids, is a group of compounds which are reaction mixtures which are fully described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,973,270; 3,141,030; 3,146,110; 3,228,772; 3,244,534; 2,744,825; 2,744,826; and 2,789,992. SLA has been employed in bread doughs and other bakery products, such as cakes, for a number of years as an emulsifying and conditioning agent. Specifications for SLA are set forth in Food Additive Regulation 21 CFR .sctn.172.848.
The specifications for ethoxylated mono- and diglycerides (EOM) are found in Food Additive Regulation 21 CFR .sctn.172.834. EOM has found utility, particularly in high fiber breads, as a dough strengthener. The utility of EOM has been set forth in detail in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,433,645; 3,490,918; 3,752,675; 3,870,799; and 4,590,076.
In the use of such prior art baked products additives, a number of problems have arisen which have heretofore not been solved. In particular, stearoyl lactylic acid has physical and chemical characteristics which prevent it from being flaked, ground, or spray congealed, thereby mandating that the product be commercially available only as a hard solid in the form of large blocks. These resulting large, hard pieces are difficult to handle by the baker, requiring the expenditure of large amounts of time and effort to appropriately size the SLA for accurate scaling into dough or batter formulations. As will be appreciated, homogeneous incorporation of large SLA chunks into dry ingredients is impractical, while melting of these chunks into molten fat for ultimate mixing with the other dough or batter ingredients is time consuming and expensive.
Therefore, there is a need for a stearoyl lactylic acid emulsifying and conditioning agent for baked goods which is easy to handle, package, and accurately scale, for dissolution or melting into heated liquid ingredients and/or dispersing into dry ingredients.
Prior uses of EOM and lactylate in the strengthening and conditioning of loaves has required separate scaling of the EOM and the lactylate due to the lack of an easily scaled combined product. Rapid scaling of undiluted EOM has been commercially impractical due to its oily, semi-gel physical properties. Diluted forms of EOM have been available as a free flowing powder; however, even with such powders, joint use of EOM and SLA has involved the difficult, time and effort consuming task of accurately scaling the solid SLA.
Therefore, there is also a need for a combined stearoyl lactylic acid/EOM dough strengthening and conditioning product for baked goods which permits the baker to make only one scaling per batch and which is in a form that is easy to handle, package, accurately scale, and disperse into dry ingredients.